My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word
that has gone out of my lips. (Psalm 89:34)
The Promise is more then one individual's call of God. It is the fullfilment of God' specific promise made to each and every believer. It is mustard seed faith nurtured by God until we know with certainty that the impossible is possible because God has no limits. It is believing in the unbelievable. It is being willing to risk everything for the call on your life.
My personal Promise really started in 1990 when one night I awoke in the middle of the night and Jesus was standing at the end of my bed. No, I’m not some crazy person that runs around seeing Jesus all the time. I had been brought up to believe in God, but at that time I wasn’t active in any church and no one would have considered me particularly “religious”. He didn’t talk to me. He just stood looking at me, considering, like you might look at a small child trying to decide if they were old enough to cross the road by themselves. I kept the incident to myself. I mean if you start telling people that Jesus actually appeared to you, most likely they’d probably bring out the little white jackets and cart you off.
Some time later while leaving a doctor’s office with my 10 year old daughter a woman came running out after us. She was flushed and excited and said “I just want you to know that the glory of God is all over you. I saw it when you were in the doctor’s office but I was uncertain about approaching you and then when you left I knew I had to run and tell you.” Then she turned to my daughter and said “You believe everything your mother tells you because she is right.” I thought it was an odd comment at the time but smiled and thanked her.
In November, 1992 I was carrying a basket of laundry out to the washing machine and thinking about nothing more than whether or not a particular blouse that had not been laundered before would shrink in the washer when a voice in my head cut through my thoughts and told me that I would come in to a great deal of money and that the money was only to be used for a ministry that God would establish. At the time, I didn’t realize that God was speaking directly to me, thought “hmm, that was weird” and promptly forgot about the incident, until some time later while saying good-night prayers with my oldest daughter. While I was praying, I received a vision and in that vision I saw my daughter and myself in a large auditorium and we were speaking before a huge gathering of people. I had a sense that this was what I did – traveling and speaking before groups, and my daughter was coming forward to give her testimony of all the horrible things that had happened to her and how she had found Jesus and the changes in her life. In my vision she looked to be about 26 or 28 years old and I had a sense that what I was seeing and the promises God was making to me would not come to pass for another 15 years or so. I remember thinking, “I hope she doesn’t go through anything too horrible.” She was only about 11½ at the time.
During the next five years there were many leadings of God, including many warnings that this money I would come in to was only to be used for a ministry that God was planning and it came with strict warnings that I was not to buy million dollar houses or fancy sports cars. It was to be God’s money and only used for a ministry that still had not been revealed to me. The last of these warnings came in July, 1998 when I received another prophetic word from a total stranger. I was going through prophetic ministry training at the time and it was the first night of class. I didn’t know anyone else in the room and we were asked to partner with another person, and to pray and prophecy over them. A young man partnered with me, bowed his head and almost immediately looked up at me, and I would say the look on his face was somewhat panicked and he wanted to run. After struggling with his emotions for just a moment the young man said, “Look I don’t how to say this or what you’ll think so I’ll just tell you. You are going to come into a lot of money. I mean a lot of money as in millions of dollars. But you can’t spend it. It’s God’s money and you need to be careful and not buy an expensive house or something”. But after 8 years of confirmations and warnings, what exactly was I supposed to do with this money?
Two more years passed and on October 16, 2000 I learned what the ministry was to be. I arose as usual, prepared to dress for work, when I suddenly felt that I had to stay home. I wasn’t sure why, only that I needed to stay home. I can’t really say that I had any conscious thought as to what transpired that day. I only know that I suddenly sat down with paper and pencil and at the end of the day I had drafted the outline of a ministry – the development of a Christian conference center that would bring inspirational speakers, educational speakers, Christian entertainment, and Christian musical groups; a Christian public library available to everyone and which would house books, periodicals, music, movies, and other items of interest and benefit to Christians, based on sound Christian principles, that could be checked out and returned, as well as providing a gathering place for Christians to come together; and a Christian bible college that would not only offer degree programs, but that would make available classes to the mature Christian at a higher level of education than might be available through their local church. I named the project the Chandler Christian Center and its purpose and mission was and is to be the further advancement of already mature Christians. I felt that the local churches were successfully meeting the mandate to “feed my sheep” and providing seeker sensitive services and classes designed to introduce Jesus to the unchurched, but that the lay leaders of the churches were not being fed at higher levels of Christian education, with more in-depth and insightful services designed for the mature Christian, and most certainly availability of Christian speakers and musical groups is limited. Many churches do offer this to some extent, particularly the large mega-churches, but I felt God was saying He wanted to create a place for His children to come and grow even further, to increase their knowledge and to have access to the best biblical texts available without having to pay to have access to the information, or to increase their knowledge, and to come together for fun and friendship with other Christians.
Two more years passed and as before, in February, 2004, there came a day I felt like there was more to the Chandler Christian Center and God began to reveal to me that if I was faithful to build the conference center, the bible college, and the Christian library that He would expand the Center with a second phase which would include an office building leasing to businesses providing Christian services, retail space for Christian businesses and a Christian bookstore/coffee shop. There would be many roadblocks and dead ends but The Promise was to me and to my children and to my children’s children to carry out the integrity of the project and its ministry purpose, and to keep all its parts cohesive.
In January, 2005, I felt called to work on The Promise. I worked on a conceptual design book based on Frank Lloyd Wright designs with a project summary and color photographs illustrative of how the project should look and the interrelationship of the buildings to each other. I felt particularly led to the Christian public library and sketched a floor plan for a two story facility. The details of the project as it came to me in October, 2000 and later expanded and more defined in 2004 and 2005 bringing it to its present form, can be seen under “The Project” tab of this website. Please allow that I am not an architect, engineer or have any education in project design or development. I have often thought it would have been more logical to place the calling of a development project on someone skilled in that area, but then I suppose this way, it is God’s way, since I have no preconceived ideas on developing a project of this magnitude.
It has been 14 years since the first revelation of The Promise was given to me. I can tell you that the vision relating to my oldest daughter, (and this is her personal testimony to share of the horrors that she experienced and that were inflicted upon her over years and years, her subsequent re-establishing of a personal relationship with Jesus and her recent joining with me now in 2007 to pursue the ministry calling), are prophetic fulfillment of the vision I had for her. She will be 26 in May, 2007. Since she looked 26 to 28 in my vision I can only believe that the remainder of the vision – that we will be speaking before large groups of people and she will be giving her testimony, will come to pass in the next few years.
Because we are now entering the time frame that I sensed would be associated with this calling on my life, I felt it was time to set forth before others my experiences. For a person to come into millions of dollars and then to choose to invest them in a church or a ministry they have on their heart is quite different from a person with no ministry leading who is given visions and promises over years and years that culminate in the prophetic fulfillment of receiving those funds and who are told in advance the purpose for the money. Surely no one who reads this website and The Promise, when it is fulfilled could doubt the reality of God and His presence at work in our lives. How wonderful to know there is someone who loves and cares for us unconditionally. It is easy to get lost in the day to day grind of every day life. Hold on to the knowledge that God has a plan and a purpose for each of us, that there may be trials and tribulations, but the fulfillment of The Promise is waiting for us. We are claiming 2007 as the year of prophetic fulfillment of God’s promises made to me. Even so, let all things be for the glory of God and according to His timing and purpose.
Of course all the details and the numerous manifestations of God’s presence, would fill a book. However, if you would like more details of my personal testimony and the ministry of Spirit-Led Ministries please click on the “contact us” button on the website where you can ask questions, review our mission statement and statement of beliefs, and sign up to receive our newsletter, “ Updates”, with praise and progress reports for the ministry. Please pray for this ministry and the fulfillment of The Promise that God might be glorified and many people brought to him as a result of this supernatural manifestation of God’s glory and power. Please also give us your prayer requests as well so that we can pray for each other and encourage each other as we strive to fulfill God’s calling on our lives.
In His Name,
Linda Cortright
March, 2007 |